11.03.07 – (LAA) Clarification of APFA’s Position Regarding 2 Month Extension of Recall Rights to Our Furloughed FAs

Saturday, November 3, 2007

As a follow-up to yesterday’s hotline message regarding a two-month extension of recall rights to our furloughed Flight Attendants scheduled to fall off the seniority list on November 1, 2007, APFA would like to clarify its position. In no way did this move by AA to extend recall rights by two months involve APFA giving up anything in exchange. AA has felt a good deal of pressure from Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri and other Capitol Hill leaders. This came at no cost to APFA, which represents over 19,000 American Airlines Flight Attendants, including than 1,400 furloughed members.

In other words, APFA has relinquished nothing in exchange for the two-month extension of recall rights to over 400 of our APFA members. APFA is NOT opening its contract early to address this or any other issue.

On another note, our recorded hotline has not been working properly due to a malfunction in AT&T’s system. We are hoping for the hotline to be fully operational by the end of next week. Thank you for your patience.

Today is Friday, November 2, 2007. This is Tommie Hutto-Blake APFA President with the APFA weekly hotline update.

Yesterday, a temporary two month status quo recall extension was signed off impacting the 410 furloughed APFA members who were scheduled to lose their recalls rights on November 1st. This letter, dated November 1, 2007, is posted on www.www.apfa.org.

By now, all APFA members are familiar with Senator Claire McCaskill from Missouri who has been urging the parties to extend the five-year recall rights for our furloughed members. Senator McCaskill has gone so far as to introduce a stand-alone bill in the U.S. Senate (S.1992), which, if passed, would require AA to extend all of our furloughed membersÇ recall rights to ten years from the date they were furloughed following the events of 9/11. Yesterday’s agreement extends recall rights of those 410 furloughed AA FAs through December 31, 2007.

During this two-month agreed to extension, the parties – APFA and AA – will continue to have mediated discussions with the help of the Senator. APFA applauds the work of Senator McCaskill and other leaders in the Senate and House who have recently urged the parties to seek a resolution to this very serious matter. These APFA members through no fault of their own lost their careers within a two-year period during a near collapse of the AMR Corporation following the loss of three aircraft in 2001.

As a point in fact, APFA furloughed members have been returning in record numbers once they receive a recall notice from their employer – American Airlines. This shows that even after waiting over four years these furloughed career professionals have every interest in returning to their job as an American Airlines Flight Attendant.

As a reminder we have over 400 of these fine career FAs and APFA members returning to the line both this month and in December, following their re-qualification training. Please do your very best to welcome these members back to the line! We will need them to stand with us in the months ahead.

Thank you for calling the APFA Hotline.